If you’re involved in soccer, then you’ve probably heard of the FIFA 11+ warm up aimed at injury prevention, but did you know that there is also a version for kids? A recent study looked into the FIFA 11+ for kids to see whether it could reduce injury rates of young football players aged between 7 and 13 years of age – and it did!
Our younger players are at risk for injury in soccer and other sports that involve quick changes of direction, collisions, and falls. We know that the biggest predictor of injury is a previous injury so it is so important to prevent these from occurring, especially at a young age.
The 11+ Kids program takes about 15-20 minutes to complete, and consists of seven different exercises: three for unilateral, dynamic stability of the lower limbs (hopping, jumping and landing); three for whole body and trunk strength/stability; and one exercise on falling technique.
In the study, the 11+ Kids groups suffered 48% less injuries, and 74% less severe injuries. It could have been even better too as the injury rates further decreased with increased program compliance. For example, the risk of injury was reduced by half in the high compliance groups (1.5 sessions per week) compared to the low compliance group (0.6 sessions per week). Just as importantly, the coaches who took part in running the program with their teams rated the quality of the program as high and worth the time and effort!
If your child is struggling with injury or you’d simply like to get them assessed to prevent any future injuries, get in contact with the team at Winston Hills Physio! Call us on 02 9838 8449 or book online by clicking here.